Adele Smith Entertainment

Sunday, July 27, 2014

I hope you are enjoying your summer. The weather continues to be pleasant and not unbearably hot, like many summers. I am a cool weather person myself so I am very happy this year. It will soon be August and time to think about Fall. I guess I am just about recovered from last Christmas, haha! In June when "six months till Christmas" was announced I was SO not ready to think about it. People in business probably think about it all the time because it is the best money making time of the year. Well, I have A BUNCH of things to tell you about today, so lets get started! :-)

We all wish there was an easy road to success and there are some, but it takes a combination of hard work and luck to get there. We all hope that we will find it right away and be able to relax for the rest of our lives, but more often than not it takes years of study, research, and trial and error to reach that golden shore of financial freedom. It is different for everyone. I have one friend who is making it big on E-bay and another who is a top 31 Consultant. I haven't found my financial niche yet, but the harder I work and the more things I try the sooner I will reach that point. The important thing is to KEEP TRYING!!!! The only one who can stop you is you!

As I said in my last post I am planning to add several new blogs to my efforts in a month. I want to make videos to go with them and really give it my all. It takes time to learn all the ins and outs of online marketing and all the techniques, but keep working at it! I will link you to my new blogs when I get them up! :-)

Membership Clubs! This could be a GREAT way to have a steady income IF you have something really good to offer. I saw in a craft catalog they offered several membership clubs. They had a project of the month club for knitting, a Christmas ornament of the month club, and a craft of the month club. I recently discovered that there are bunches of children's membership clubs, book of the month, DVD of the month, sticker of the month, skirt of the month, hair bow of the month, toy of the month, craft of the month, gift of the month, why there is even a monthly membership club for pets, Paw Pac. Just think if you had five or six of these going and got a lot of members you would do quite well. Don't forget online Membership clubs. You can have different levels of membership using the software, Wishlist.

I recently saw a video about an author who earns $3,000 per month selling e-books on Kindle. That sounds like one AMAZING way to make a living and I hope this will be my niche! Complete artistic freedom sounds wonderful and here is a little video that explains the process of publishing your Kindle e-book.

If you want to give direct sales a try without breaking the bank I suggest you give Kitsy Lane and Keaton Row a try. These do not have a TON of requirements and supplies you will need to purchase. Basically, you only need to make a sale once every six months to remain active. The only thing to consider is that you probably should buy some of the product yourself to help advertise to your friends. So you will need to plan on buying a few items. Going into business is never 100% free, but from all the research I have done these seem to have the least requirements.

Have you ever thought of teaching English as a second language? That might be a good job if you are already an English speaker. American TESOL Institute You can take their course and get lifetime job placement service! Sounds pretty cool! If you want to travel this will be ideal for you and if not you can still find jobs in the US and online. You could offer personal lessons on Fiverr or teach on GoFluent or Verbal Planet.

I'm going to try New England Crafters and Tiny Details in September and it will be AWESOME if they turn out to be decent money makers. One word of warning though is that these companies make tiny crafts like jewelry and dollhouse miniatures on a one to twelve inch scale. So if you are not used to working with tiny objects doing these crafts might be difficult.

Update on the GPT and survey sites! I have ruled out surveys because they take too much time, you rarely qualify, and I resent all the personal questions they ask. So bye, bye, surveys! As for the GPT sites I don't have time to work on them. I keep up with the e-mails and things on Inbox Dollars and Send Earnings and I have over $30 on my combined accounts, but since I have four part time jobs and I am trying to write books and make movies in my spare time there is never enough time to go to the sites and work on any of the tasks. I still think Fusion Cash, Swagbucks, and Amazon Mechanical Turk are good sites, but I just don't have the time. If I was unemployed I am sure I would have the time to put in to them, but I just don't.

As a writer I do not want to write articles for other people and give out all my good information. I would rather write a book on the subject myself and keep the rights to all the information I have gathered. So ruling out article writing, reviews are left. The reason Review Stream appeals to me is that it says they pay anywhere from $1 to $6 for each review plus a little bit for traffic. This sounds REALLY good to me so you should check that one out. Shvoong is a site where you write reviews of any published literary work. I think the pay is only revenue on ads, but its reviews so you could give it a try. After all, reviews of specific product are not likely something you will be publishing a book on yourself.

Now you could build your own business up piece by piece. Education is a good one. You could start by uploading teaching videos to Youtube, then write a book and a course. It will almost be like your own correspondence school. You could make one of your membership sites a school! The same goes for building up a manufacturing and sales business. Start out on E-bay and Etsy and then sell products on your own website. You can even start a direct sales company with a team of consultants and affiliates to help sell your products.

I hope I've given you some good ideas for continuing down that path to financial freedom!

Thursday, June 26, 2014

I hope all is well and that you are enjoying your summer. I am not much of a summer fan myself because of the hot temperatures, but I have to say that so far our weather in western PA has been very pleasant this year. Well, enough about the weather we are here to talk about business and I believe I have struck GOLD this time and found the ABSOLUTE BEST way to go about starting an online business. A blog has EVERYTHING!!!!! Now let me explain!

There are many different ways to earn money online. Some of them are shady and some of them are downright illegal. They promise you that it is easy to become rich, but then you are the one who ends up spending your money on their supplies and you find out making sales is not so easy. Also your business needs to be something that you are passionate about. If you do something you hate just because it might pay big bucks you are going to lose interest and it is just awful to leave a clutter of links and sites that are no longer active because you decided to drop the business. And this is where your blog comes in. :-)

You blog about something you LOVE, establish yourself as an authority on the subject, and then there is NO LIMIT to the products you can create around your central theme. You can also expand: start your own affiliate program, sell courses, start a magazine, travel around and give lectures, etc... Building this kind of empire with a blog is my intention and I advise you to do the same. Why limit yourself to ONE topic??? Why not start half a dozen blogs and build them up the same way? I know you are an expert on more than one subject! With a blog you work at your own pace. You don't have to buy supplies or buy ads to sell someone else's products. You are FREE as a bird to build up YOUR OWN empire and not make someone else rich by selling their products. That is the way I like it! :-)

Some of the ways to have a successful blog is to, post two to three times a week or even everyday if you want to. Add links, videos, and photos to your blog and make it look interesting. Don't put too many ads on the blog, after all content is King. You don't want your audience to feel like all you want to do is sell them stuff. Be sure you give them lots of good information and tell them how the information and products you offer will help them. Customers are always on the look out for things that will benefit them so be sure you do a good job of selling them on the benefits. Be interactive and answer all comments and questions. You could buy advertising if you want, but it can get expensive so for a cheaper option give sites like Fiverr a try. Google Adwords would be a reasonable option too. Promote your blog online and offline to your friends, family, Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIN. Get an online radio show with Blog Talk Radio. There are unlimited ways you can promote your Blog and your passion for what you write about will spur you on!

In closing I want to give you some examples of top notch bloggers who have built their blogs into a whole business with all the works. I just shake my head in AMAZEMENT at the creativity and talent of these individuals and I wonder why I haven't thought of it myself. So be prepared to be inspired by the Kings and Queens of blogging! :-)

Well, I hope this gives you some good ideas and gets your brain waves flowing. I must say these articles have stimulated my mind so I'm going to get busy building my blogs and you should too. Best of Luck!!!!

Friday, May 30, 2014

This post may be a little more on the personal side, but I did want to get a post done before the whole month of May slips by. I really need to be more organized. An article said that you should have FIFTY blog posts written before you even START your blog and that is REALLY good advice! If I start more blogs I will do AT LEAST 25 posts for each before I start them. Blogs are really like magazines if you think about it and GUESS WHAT Blurb self publishers has started offering online Magazine Publishing. So you can start your blogs here and then graduate to magazines. An AWESOME opportunity!

I am planning to get some new business cards a separate one for each of the entertainment service, videography service, writing service, and a personal card. This photo is one I am likely to use for my personal card. :-)

Well, lets talk about what I have learned in this past month, business related, that might be of use to you. I plan on jumping in and offering some videography, entertainment, and writing services, but I am concerned because of the way people are today. They might sue you and destroy your business if they want you to do a project that is against your faith and you refuse. You hear about cases like this on the news regularly and I ask myself if I want to open myself up to trouble.

I feel the best way to guard against it is to include a clause about that in your mission statement or your terms and conditions. Be careful how you promote your service too. Try to think of all the possible problems that could arise. For instance my company Adele Smith Entertainment produces wholesome family entertainment and any videography work would have to be consistent with our image. If someone wanted me to do a lingerie commercial or a music video with swearing in it, or a promotional video on a new bar in town I would have to refuse on the grounds that it conflicts with the values my company is trying to promote. So these are important questions you need to ask yourself before you go into business. What are you willing to do?

GOOD NEWS!!!! Film locations are MUCH cheaper and easier to get than you think. This is the first year I really asked to film on someone's property and they don't even want to charge me. Bed and Breakfasts are the best place to ask for interiors. The Brick House Bed and Breakfast They are open to the public after all and at the worst you would probably only have to pay for the rent of a room. Filming at a bed and breakfast will really add drama and authenticity to our films. We are moving up in the world. :-)

Let me see what else do I have to say? GPT Sites, there are a TON of them! I am not going to officially recommend any until I successfully cash out. I think GPT sites may be a better way to earn money than most surveys. I rarely qualify for surveys and when I do it is either too long or becomes too invasive and I exit out. At least with the GPT sites you know you are getting so many cents for each micro task.

Well, I hope you have gleaned some helpful info from this post! Take care and I'll talk to you next time!

Friday, April 25, 2014

WOW! It has been a long time since I last posted. This month has been crazy, but I have LOTS of things to share with you! :-)

First of all on March 28th I got to meet movie star Erik Estrada at a film showing of "Uncommon" his latest faith based film made by JC Films. I want to give them a plug here on my blog because they are a new company and fellow Christian film makers. They are in association with Liberty University. "Finding Faith" was their first film and "Uncommon" is their second. They are making LOTS of films now, so I say God bless them in their ministry. Go check out their site, buy their movies and like the Facebook page. They are cool!

Getting to know YOU

It is not as easy to get to know yourself as it sounds. You have ALL the clues you need you just have to figure out how to put them together to solve the mystery of who you are. :-)

First consider your interests. In my case I LOVE the arts, I mean REALLY LOVE the arts. My number one choice is acting, specifically in movies. The dream is wonderful, but now lets factor in some other things, the distance between your dream and the reality of it matching up with your lifestyle and habits.

My faith is a BIG issue for me. I only want to act in wholesome movies, the kind of movies "they used to make," when ALL the films could be watched by a general audience and they could talk about God and the films were fabulous and artistic.

My lifestyle is independent, my habits are not to get up too early and not to stay up all night. I also dislike traveling and refuse to go on airplanes. I am kind of a homebody and I am fussy about going places and doing things. I like to be in control of what I am doing, it gives me confidence.

One of my strengths is to just move forward and get things done. Other people look at the obstacles and are stopped I have the courage and determination to fight on and that is rarer than you think. So I have become a director and producer and I LOVE it!!!! I love being able to make magic happen and dreams come true. Other people aren't doing anything about it, but I can and I will.

Another talent I have is in writing and it helps me in writing plays and movie scripts I soon want to move on to fiction and informational books. I don't like to wait so I am planning to self publish, ever the independent. :-)

Recently I thought about traveling and doing shows and doing videography, but I realized that even though it might be some quick money I would not being true to myself and if you are not true to yourself you will hate what you are doing and quit. I don't like to travel or worry about not being able to get the video just perfect for the customer. I want to be a producer of programming that I am passionate about.

My conclusion, I want to continue to be an independent artist and do what I love and do best. I will be the happiest that way, even if I have to work a basic job and save up to make every movie. You MUST be true to yourself above all else

DO YOU REALLY KNOW YOU???????

In Conclusion1. Choose your favorite dream 2. List your habits/limitations 3. Write down what you would have to do to make your dream come true. 4. Write down what you are willing to do to make your dream come true. 5. Compare the two lists and you will find your true self. 6. Don't do something just because you think you should, but really don't want to. You will be unhappy and it won't work out.Get to know yourself, be true to yourself and you will live a happy life. Don't forget to pray for direction. Find God's will for your life!

Thursday, March 20, 2014

Well, its spring now and time to think about spring cleaning and earning money. So today we are going to talk about E-bay. I have some friends who are making it big on E-bay, but I still have yet to master the technique. The many E-bay success stories prove that it can be a great business to those who understand how to run it. This post is going to be about all the things I did wrong on my first E-bay listing and how you can avoid the mistakes I made.

1. Bought Inexpensive Item

When looking for items to sell on E-bay you must consider how much the item itself is worth and what you can get for it. The cost of the item must be able to absorb the incidental fees and still come out with a profit. I bought a set of wholesale baby clothes at $5.50 a piece.

2. Purchased From A Wholesaler

It is recommended that you first begin with selling items around your house before investing in products from a wholesaler. Also wholesalers you easily find online are also going to be found by other retailers.

3. Listed Buy Now Only

E-bay recommends that you list auction style, but I didn't do that because only one price would make me a profit. Setting the price anywhere below would result in a large financial loss.

4. Markup Too Low

I purchased the articles of baby clothes at $5.50 a piece plus I paid for having them shipped. Once I figured in the E-bay fees and cost of packaging materials, each outfit could only sell for $15 at minimum. Since then I have read that the markup should be four times the cost at minimum, with TEN times the cost being preferred.

5. Price Set Too high

A little baby romper can be purchased at the dollar store for $5 so why would someone pay twice that amount plus shipping for the same article they can get for less than half the price. The problem with overpricing your item goes back to a failure in the beginning to consider the cost, fees, and what the item is worth before choosing it to be your product.

6. 30 Day Permanent Listing

Once again I disregarded E-bay's advice and listed the item for 30 days at Buy Now instead of auction style for seven days. Items listed for auction show up in searches more than Buy Now listings and so do items that are ending soon. If your listing it for forever it will be practically invisible to potential customers. Also every thirty days you will have to pay the listing fee until the item sells or until you cancel the offer.7. Believing What I ReadI read that children's clothes are GREAT sellers and you can't go wrong with that product. Well, it didn't work out for me, possibly because of all the other things that were wrong with my first E-bay listing. Advice that people give online should not be taken too seriously or taken at face value. There are often many other factors involved in making a success of selling a particular product.8. Shipping CostsWhen buying and selling online you have to pay shipping for the item to come to you so that goes into your price. Then E-bay asks you to list a shipping price, but you don't know if someone from your state will buy your item or someone from Timbuktu. In the case of Timbuktu you will end up absorbing shipping costs that may destroy your profits completely. There is a rating incentive to offer free shipping, but you will have to make sure you can afford to be generous. The point is to sell items that are light and easy to pack to reduce shipping costs all around.9. Incidental FeesThere are various E-bay fees for listing and for selling. Don't forget packaging costs! You want to use professional packaging materials, that could include boxes, tissue paper, bubble wrap, mailers, etc... That all costs, and adds a quarter here and there to your cost. Sending your items in an old cereal box is very unprofessional. It takes quite a while to get your listing just right and then there is the packaging and shipping. You have to consider what your time is worth and maybe factor some of that in your price. You may not be able to earn a fair wage for your time in the beginning, but you will someday.10. Lack Of Experience

There may be some people who hit the jackpot on E-bay with their first listing, but don't count on that. I am afraid trial and error is just part of learning how to conduct business online. Many people probably give up after their first few unsuccessful listings, but you just have to keep trying and learning from your mistakes. Figure out what you are doing wrong and keep refining your listings and techniques. Don't give up and in no time at all you will be experienced. :-)

I am going to give E-bay another try this spring and right all the ten wrongs in this list. We will see what happens this time. One of my friends is starting to hit it big on E-bay. She has been on it since 2006 listing a few items here and there and doing fairly well. Last week I checked her account and she has nearly 800 items for sale. Obviously business has really picked up and she is working toward replacing her full time income. I have many "irons in the fire" but I would like to add E-bay to the list and master the technique of selling online. I hope my list of what NOT to do when listing on E-bay helps my fellow beginning sellers avoid some of these basic problems.

Sunday, March 2, 2014

Well, I spent half the day checking out craft assembly companies and I must say I am disappointed with the results. However, it is better to be disappointed now than to spend money and be cheated later. Sadly, you will notice that ALL scams say they are legitimate, so don't go by their word. Do thorough research before trusting any work at home company.

I am sure you have seen the "Home Employment Directory" by the "National Homeworkers Association" for sale at various places online. I decided to give it a try and it was a TOTAL SCAM and waste of money. I was able to get a refund so that helps and if you look at the listing on Amazon you will find a negative review by yours truly. Now I will elaborate on how I know it was a scam and all the other things I discovered about these work at home opportunities this weekend.

What is laughably called "The Home Employment Directory," is only twenty or twenty five pages that have been printed off a cheap printer and bound together with a flimsy plastic binding. The National Homeworkers Association must be a scam business operating in some seedy character's garage because no legitimate business would pedal such poorly constructed materials. Also most of the companies listed are either out of business, easily found on a Google search, or have no website. A company that has no website is a pretty suspicious company in my book. If you can't look them up and see their website and find information about them, they are probably not reputable. In the days before the internet it was easier for these scam artists to operate because there was not a lot of information readily available to the public.

The contents of "The Home Employment Directory" can be found on different websites some with contact information and some without because they want you to buy that information from them. I spent the afternoon checking the companies with the Better Business Bureau and I hate to say that they were either out of business or had a big fat F. I don't think it can get more discouraging than that. :-( I can't believe that there are supposedly "reputable" sites/blogs out there that are actually promoting this book/list. It is very outdated and it seems that everyone is just passing around the same list. They say that the Better Business Bureau doesn't like work at home companies so that could be one reason why they all seem to have a grade of F despite a lack of filed complaints. It is up to you whether you want to give any of these a try.

I am going to give Tiny Details a try despite the complaints I have seen. It has an updated website, and it is a recognized miniature manufacturer whose products are carried by big companies like Handley House. A company with that much going for it cannot be a complete scam. Also my brother and I do miniatures as a hobby so their products are familiar to us. Many people who are bent on getting rich quick probably do not have the skills or the patience for such detailed work, so it is no wonder there is a long list of failed workers. This is one I will be giving a try in the next few months.

In the midst of ALL this very BAD news about the legitimacy of craft assembly companies there was one glowing star in the bunch and that is Magical Gift Dollhouses. It has an A+ rating with the Better Business Bureau and the ONLY craft assembly company with a good grade I might add. It is also a miniature/jewelry manufacturing company. So this is the safest company to try.

Now to a more cheerful subject! I learned how to add affiliate banners to blogger blogs! :-)

It is just that simple and that will help you out A LOT if you are doing affiliate marketing. If you notice on the side of my most recent blog post that I inserted a mini banner for Inbox Dollars AND an Amazon Affiliate link. Don't add too many affiliates to your blog because people will begin to think you are desperate to sell them things.

Now to end on an upbeat note! Things have been going pretty well on the GPT and survey sites, BUT I get so much e-mail now that I can't keep up with it so I don't get around to going to the actual sites to work. :-( So far I REALLY like Inbox Dollars and Send Earnings. They have LOTS of ways to earn and it adds up fast. I discovered there are another forty or fifty GPT/Survey sites I could sign up for, but all in good time. I HATE it when they try to get you to sign up for offers that will cost you money! DON'T DO IT!!!!! Just exit out when they ask you to do that. Oddly enough I have exited out of a few surveys and they still credited my account with the money. :-)

Thursday, February 13, 2014

Have I got a post for you! After these last few years of talking about and thinking about making money online, I finally took the plunge just a week ago and signed up for EVERY legitimate site out there on the web. Now I am going to tell you about it and go through the sign up process. I haven't gotten very deep into these sites yet, but I can tell you which ones I like so far and which ones I am ready to cancel my account. So I have LOTS of good little tidbits for you today! :-)

A Few Favorites

Swagbucks
iRazoo
Inbox Dollars
Fusion Cash
Surveys E-mail

A Few Red Flags

Ipsos iSay
Toluna
Quick Pay Survey
Big Bucks Surveys

Signing up is probably the easiest thing to do many of the sites offer $5 just for signing up, which is a nice little gesture. I favor the sites that let you sign up with Facebook because it makes it faster and easier. You will need a password for each and a username. Some will send an activation e-mail to your address which you must confirm. There is not much to say about just signing up it is a pretty straight forward process. I did sign up for some stock photography sites and art sites, but that will keep for another time. This post is about GPT(Get paid to...) Sites.

Surveys, you will find that you get LOTS of survey offers and for the most part they are a waste of time. It didn't really take long to figure that out. Usually you will have to take a quiz to see if you qualify and the qualifying tests can be long sometimes. It is RARE that you actually qualify for a survey, but I would say you have the best chances of qualifying if you shop a lot, travel a lot, and have lots of technological gadgets. Surveys can be kind of invasive to your privacy too so don't answer anything you don't feel comfortable with. Surveys can really eat up your time, so don't let them.

Paid E-mails, now this sounds pretty good, but it is only one or two cents per e-mail and now let me tell you the theory behind paid e-mails. They are ads for other surveys and offers. They want you to participate or sign up for things. All the companies seem to be promoting the same things too. I think there needs to be reform to the ad system, but I'll talk about that in a few minutes. You get about two or three paid e-mails from each company a day and I think it is an excellent idea for advertisement.

E-mail deluge, Yep! You see when you sign up for one GPT or Survey site and they will ask you to sign up for another and another and another, so you are going to end up joining fifty sites and they can e-mail! Be careful of the offers they promote because most of them are trying to trick you into signing up for paid subscriptions that could cost you A LOT, but they will give you fifty cents for signing up. Don't despair though Some offers are free so just read carefully.

Kitsy Lane, Just when I thought all the paid e-mails were for the same old products, surveys, and sweepstakes, I discovered a NEW marketing technique from one of their ads that I think is simply the best marketing technique since the invention of sliced bread. First of all through the Amazon Associate program you are able to build what is known as aStores. You are able to build a store and list Amazon products and then promote it to your audience and earn affiliate commissions. So you are able to have a chain of affiliate stores without spending a cent. With Kitsy Lane the idea is the same. You sign up and create your own jewelry boutique for FREE! You basically have an affiliate store. I have see some people complain about them online, but hey, if it is FREE you have nothing to lose, so stop your fussing folks!

Online sales needs reform! That's what I say! There HAS to be a way to advertise without trying to cheat customers into signing up for your product or service. I am referring to the offers that say sign up for a mortgage through us and we'll give you five dollars. NO! BAD SALES ETHICS! Only a fool would fall for that! I think the affiliate store type of model is the best because you give the customer this opportunity FREE and then they are more likely to buy from your company to check out your products. These things must be done delicately! Remember the customer is thinking of what they are going to get out of your offer. So make it something that would appeal to you as a customer!

Compare sites - best and worst! Well, the best are the ones that have the most likes on Facebook. That is one of the criteria I use to check out the GPT sites. Also they have a wide variety of tasks you can do to earn money, they are generous, easy to work and earn from. The worst just have surveys that you don't qualify for and expensive offers that are not worth completing. Be careful of buying things through TrialPay. I completed two offers through them and never got credit for it. I am inquiring into the matter now.

Well, I guess I will go ahead and give you the HUGE list I signed up with. So far, so good. I will keep you updated on my progress, but I will not officially endorse any site until I complete a successful payout. When I find out they really pay I will sing their praises!

Reviews can only tell you so much, sometimes you have to just try it out yourself. Happy Hunting! :-)

About Me

Hi, My name is Adele Celeste Smith and my company is Adele Smith Entertainment. I am a Christian/Conservative so my big ambition is to produce wholesome, quality, family entertainment. I am rededicating myself to this blog and here we will explore various topics. I am new to the online business world and I know that business is always a popular topic on blogs so we will be taking the journey together. I will report to you EVERYTHING that I learn in the road to becoming a business owner and along the way I will also have posts on Classic Film History and occasionally some other cool topics as well. Glad to have you with me as I explore the exciting world of business and entertainment! :-)